Travelers and locals want certainty, convenience and quality when searching for a facility or service, such as a restroom or other kind of facility. In some instances, consumers may pretend that they are legitimate customers in order to gain access to a retailer or hotel in order to avoid using a publicly available facility, due to concerns about cleanliness, maintenance, and safety. Over time, vendor locations such as coffee shops, cafes, gas stations, grocers, and other retailers in areas with heavy foot traffic may become “de facto” public restrooms. Allowing the general public access to private business facilities may create additional costs and risks, as well as concerns about controlling access without seemingly discriminatory policies, while giving the private facility no real benefit. Additionally, dealing with consumers that are unsure if they are welcome to use a given facility or not may lead to repeated awkward interactions between consumers and vendor employees, alienating potential customers and harming the efficiency of employees.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved system for managing consumer access to private facilities or resources in a way that is convenient and beneficial for both the consumer and the private facility owner or resource manager.